Electric railway signaling apparatus



(No Model.)

0 H. RUDD. ELECTRIC RAILWAY SIGNALING -APPARATUS.

Patented June 3 114E mums PETER! 2:0,, mamumm, msmunfc UNITED STATES PATENT O FICE.

CHARLES H. RUDD, OF EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JAMES N. WVHITE, JAMES CLARENCE WHITE, AND HENRY M. LEWIS, TRUSTEES, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 429,483, dated June 3, 1890.

Application filed March 24, 1890. Serial No. 345,047. (No model.)

connected with or mounted upon the car,

through which motor the current passes and is controlled or regulated from a main or cen-' tral station.

The objects of my invention are not only to enable the engineer to control the train from the main station, but also automatically to indicatethe speed and location of the train to him at that point. These ends I attain by using a three-rail track or Way, each properly insulated in well-known ways, one of which rails constitutes a conductor for the actuating or direct current which passes 2 5 through the motor and returns to the generator through the other two rails upon which the supporting-wheels of the locomotive respectively run. These return rails or conductors consist of sections insulated from each other 0 and connected by cross-conductors, so that the circuit shifts from a section on one side of the main conductor to the next succeeding section 011 the opposite side, the supportingwheels consisting of plain metal, one of them being in circuit with the motor, so that as it passes over the junction of the insulated sections the current is shifted from one side to the other, without, however, changing its polarity or direction, passing through and actu- 4o ating suitable indicating or recording mechanism at the main station.

The subject-matter claimed is hereinafter specifically designated.

The accompanying drawings represent so 5 much of my improved apparatus as is necessary to illustrate the subject-matter herein claimed. 7

Unless otherwise designated the apparatus described is of usual construction, the details of which constitute no part of my invention, which is limited to their novel organizationand constitutes an improvement upon analogous apparatus illustrated in United States Letters Patent No. 259,589, granted to me June 13, 1882, for electric railways, and No. 5 5

r 426,395, granted to me April 22, 1890, for apparatus for electric railway signaling.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represent a diagrammatic plan view of the motor, track, and cross-connections; Fig. 2, a vertical central longitudinal section through the motor, and Fig. 3 a diagram illustrating the circuit-connections.

The circuit passes from a generator A at the central, controlling, or main station, through 6 5 a conductor b to a continuous insulated central conductingrail B, through which it passes to a motor-wheel C of suitable construction, such as that shown in my Letters Patent above mentioned, in which two circu- 7o lar metallic side plates or disks clasp between their peripheries a wooden rim or felly 0 projecting circumferentially beyond the peripheries of the disks, so as to electrically insulate them and the fixed metallic axle D, around 7 5 which they freely turn from the rail. The

rim is encompassed by a tire composed of separate sections insulated from each other, as shown at 1 2 3 4, Fig. 2. Electro-magnets C corresponding in number with the tire-sec- 8otions, are secured between the side plates and arranged radially relatively to the fixed axle D, which their inner polesapproximate, and on which axle an armature d is fixed. A wire 0 connects one end of the coil of its respective magnet with its corresponding insulated tire-section, the other end of each coil being connected by a wire 0 with the side plates.

The motor-wheel turns loosely on the fixed axle D, of non-magnetic metal, but with which it is in electrical contact, and through which the current passes to the motor-frame E. An axle F, turning freely in hearings in the supporting-frame, carries supporting-wheels G G fixed thereon, one of which is insulated 5 from the axle, as at f, Fig. 1, so that the circuit returns to the rails through one supporting-wheel only. These supporting wheels may be those usually employed, the only essential requisite being that one of them should be of conducting material and constitute a portion of the circuit. The rails upon which these supporting-wheels run are shown as arranged on each side of and separate from the central or actuating rail, and as composed of sections H H H. H of, say, from a half to a quarter of a mile or any desired length. These sections are connected at their ends by cross-wires or circuit-connections h it, so arranged that the current passes from the end of a section 011 one side of the central rail to the adj acentendof the diagonal ly-oppositesec tion. As shown by the arrows in Fig. 3, which indicate the direction of the current, by which it will be seen that as the supporting-wheel passes, say, from the section II to the section H the current passes from the last-named section over to the section H of the opposite rail, and so on alternately. Wires 7&3 h connect these sections, respectively, with an electro-magnet J at the central station, consisting of two spools or polesjj. These spools have the opposite ends of their coils connected with the generator by a wire 77/5, and are so wound that the shifting of the circuit caused by the passage of the wheel over the sections, although the current flowing therethrough is always of the same polarity and flowing in the same direction, energizes the magnets alternately, and consequently causes the armature I to rock upon its pivot 1'. An arm projecting from the magnet is forked and carries pawls or pallets acting on a ratchet-wheel or escapement I, mounted 011 ashaft, carrying an actuated registering or indicating mechanism of well-known construction. The length of the sections being known,the time of the passage of the train thereover can readily be ascertained or indicated by well-known means, so as to enable the engineer to ascertain the speed of the train, and its position will be indicated by the registering mechanism, which indicates the number of sections traversed.

The apparatus will of course be provided with the usual switches and current-reversing mechanism, which are not shown, they are not herein claimed.

Having thus described the organization and operation of my improved electric railway signaling apparatus, what I claim therein as new and as of my own invention is- 1. The combination, substantially as hereinbefore set forth, of a continuous rail-conductor, insulated cross-connected rails constituting return -conductors, a motor, and de vices through which the current passes from the continuous to the return conductors through the motor.

2. The combination, substantially as hereinbefore set forth, of a generator at a control ling-station, a continuous rail constituting one branch of a propelling-circuit, tracks consisting of insulated sections and cross-connections uniting the ends of one section of track with the adjacent ends of opposite sections, constituting a return signaling-circuit, a signaling-instrument therein, a motor, and supporting-wheels, one of which constitutes the circuit-connection with the retu rn-circuit and which automatically shifts the current from one return-circuit to the other simply by traversing the cross-connected insulated sections.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

OHARLES H. RUDD. \Vitnesses:

JOHN A. LANGAN, J r., ALOYSIUS H. IIUEMMER. 

